Enfleurage

Enfleurage techniques are traditional, but they became widespread in Grasse starting in the 18th century. It is a process that makes it possible to recover the odor compounds from fresh and fragile flowers using fats. There were two enfleurage techniques, hot and cold, depending on the type of flower. Hot was used for May rose, orange blossom, and cassie, while cold was for tuberose and jasmine.

To perform hot enfleurage, fresh flowers were immersed in copper vats filled with animal fat melted at a temperature of 40-45°C. After 24 hours, the fat was recovered through drainage on large sieves and was then reused for a new batch of flowers until the fat was completely saturated with the fragrance. This saturated fat, called pomade, was then treated again with an alcohol wash to create the absolute.

For cold enfleurage, flowers were placed daily on frames thickly coated with fat. It usually took 60 days for the fats to become saturated with fragrance. By this method, 25 kilograms of jasmine flowers perfumed one kilogram of fat, while only two kilograms of tuberose flowers were required for the same result of perfumed fat.

Today, the enfleurage technique using animal fat is no longer practiced.